What an absolute roller coaster of a hype train this has been!
We haven't seen a "brand new" faction since Kharadron Overlords, and Idoneth Deepkin has had more build up and anticipation for its release than I think I've ever seen around an army. From the adoration of the models and the love for aelves burning brightly, to the people buying aquarium terrain and bragging about how all of their Thralls are going to carry banners, Deepkin seems to be everywhere I look. So, let's dive into this.
Before we look at Enclaves, Battalions and the likes, lets do a quick overview of the Warscrolls! I'm not going to list off every single detail on every single scroll, because by this point, the scrolls are all available on the AOS App. Instead, I just want to highlight some things that got me super excited. I'm going to split them into three parts, looking at each of the three distinct castes within Deepkin society. We'll start with the Isharann.
ISHARANN
The Isharann include all of your foot heroes, a high caste that are integral for the survival of the Idoneth. On the table, these characters fill the role of utility and combo pieces, accentuating the strengths of the units around them.
Tidecasters are your main source of cheap magic (with your only other source of wizards being Eidolon of Mathlann or allies), and they're a pretty well rounded option. While they have an ability that allows you to change the tides if they're your general, I don't think Tidecasters are going to be leading too many armies. They will fit certain builds, but for many, the ability will not outweigh other, more versatile options. Tidecasters also come with a pretty nifty little Guardian, that negates the first wound they suffer each turn. Their warscroll spell is pretty good, and I think they will see a lot of table time!
Next, you have Soulscryers. If you're going to see Tidecasters a lot, be prepared to see Soulscryers everywhere you look! Scryers are Priests, making them vital for the reliability of Rituals (a very cool mechanic that triggers table-wide effects. They can pop up on a table edge with two units and pose a threat from unexpected quarters, as well as giving charge buffs to nearby units. This allows you to jump on a table edge 9" away from enemies, and the accompanying combat units only need to make a 6" charge! They're a great utility piece that brings a lot to the table, and they are great value no matter how you build your army. This is actually a standout character for the army in my eyes. Scryers are to Deepkin what Gutrot Spume is to Maggotkin, only more versatile, cheaper, significantly less survivable and they can bring two units of whatever they want. Scryers don't HAVE to go into reserves either; you could save a Scryer and some units until late in deployment, forcing your opponent to commit to a deployment style before you make the decision.
If you're running a big unit of Thralls, it makes perfect sense to include a Soulrender (or three). This is probably the most combat-oriented of the Isharann, but even then, he's not going to be hunting down Bloodthirsters or anything. His main use is replenishing the ranks of nearby Namarti units at the end of the battleshock phase, returning lost brothers to the fray. Considering the fragility of Namarti, this is a wise investment to support those large units of Thralls that are looking to get into a punch-on, or who are unfortunate enough to find themselves screening the rest of the army. It's very thematic of them to do so, after all... It's also worth noting that the Soulrender is a total boss of a model. He just looks like he means business!
Then we have Lotann. He is one of only two named characters in the entire battletome, but he is probably one of the most iconic model from the range, with his giant octopus familiar. The writhing tentacles give him a 5+ wound negation roll which is pretty handy, but it falls into the same trap as Tidecaster's Guardians. Thanks to the allegiance ability, it's either very hard to even inflict damage upon them, making their protection rendered unused, or they are the closest unit and are eating so much damage, a 5+ is not going to save them. Now, that doesn't mean that the saves aren't worth bothering with, because magic and combat still uses the conventional methods of making Deepkin not alive anymore! But like all Isharann, Lotann needs to be protected!
His other ability is a bravery boost for friends wholly within 12", and re-roll 1's to hit for Namarti within the same bubble.This is pretty useful, but again, will only be required in certain builds. I can see this guy being included in army lists purely for the painting element, because it's such a standout model.
While we're on the topic, I did want to touch on the "Wholly Within" trend. This seems to be the way things are going, and I think it's great. Basically, the whole premise is that if a single model from a unit is outside the range of the aura, the unit is not "wholly within" and doesn't benefit. This has been introduced before, but is particularly crucial for Deepkin, who build entire armies off auras. I think it's good for the game, as it rids the game of stringing out units with little daisy chains to tag an aura, benefitting units on the other side of the board (Bloodletters and Bloodsecrator, this means you!). It means people have to play smarter, and think ahead, and that's only going to nurture stronger, smarter play. Now, I've heard some people say that "Wholly Within" is too restrictive, but especially with Deepkin, the army is fast and mobile enough for this not to be an issue.
NAMARTI
Namarti really are the bottom feeders of the army. Nudge nudge...
But seriously, as far as generic battleline units go, Namarti Thralls are off chops! They're fast, they have rend, and they can put some serious hurt on massed infantry and monsters alike. They're not cheap, weighing in at 140 points for 10, but you get what you pay for, and they're not too shabby. These fill an important role in the army, as its looking like a really elite, low model count army, so a big block of infantry will be invaluable for nabbing those objectives. It needs to be said that the Icon Bearer rule has been picked up and run with by a small minority of the community, who are claiming that all models can be Icon Bearers. This will no doubt be FAQ'd into the ground, but it's pretty clear what the intent was here. If every model was meant to be an Icon Bearer, there'd be 10 Icons in the box.
The Namarti Reavers are super dynamic models, and offer some massed shooting. They have no rend, but I think they have the rate of fire and the mobility to play a part in the army. I don't think they're a must take, but in some armies, they will fill an important role!
AKHELIAN
Oh... baby...
This is easily my favourite caste. This is the martial force with all the sick sea creatures, and contains some of the scariest units in the army! So, let's start off with style and go straight for the generals, Volturnos and the Akhelian Kings.
I think Volturnos is a really solid character. He comes with a 3+ save, 8 wounds, he doesn't lose any power when he's damaged, and he's FAST! His command ability is great, his bravery and attack auras are great, he does mortal wounds on the charge, he's no slouch in combat (can you say Rend -5?) and his shield can turn off spells that target him on a 3+!! All for 280 points. That's a bargain. I think the "named character tax" is a thing of the past, because the named characters we've seen in the last few books have been pointed very competitively with their generic counterparts (yes, Rotigus. I mean you.).
That's not to say the Akhelian King isn't also a great choice. He doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but he's 40 points cheaper, has a pretty nasty Bladed Polearm (easily my top pick of weapon options for him!), and most importantly, he can take an Artefact and a Command Trait. A really solid choice!
Then, let's talk about giant, flying death turtles! The Leviadon is not only a great centrepiece for any Idoneth army, but it's the linchpin to many armies. It emits a 12" Cover bubble (that the Leviadon itself as well as Allopexes can't benefit from, having the Monster keyword), it's tough as nails if you do decide to give your opponent the opportunity to shoot it, and it can bite the head off just about any hero unfortunate enough to be wandering around when it gets hungry. As a whole, for 380 points, it doesn't seem over the top (when you consider murder machines like Skarbrand are only 400), but it isn't so much there to mash the enemy as it is to stay alive and keep its friends alive.
The Allopex, in my mind, is probably the hardest unit to define. I feel like it falls into the weird place between elite multi-wound unit, tiny monster and gun platform. The shooting options are pretty cool, but a bit of a surprise. Neither have any rend, but I think the Net Launcher is probably the better of the two. Sure, you might pass your armour save, but if you don't it's a flat three damage. The combat profiles are also pretty nice, but the hard thing is finding a role for it. The Allopex comes across as a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But then again, the Khorgorath was in that same boat, and now, Khorgorath packs are surprisingly scary. I could be wrong, and I hope so, because let's be real for a second...
I think all Age of Sigmar players can get behind the idea of sharks with harpoon launchers!!
Then come the eel cavalry. There are two varieties, and while they have their own unique titles (Morrsarr Guard and Ishlaen Guard, for those reading at home), they have since been dubbed Offence Eels and Defence Eels, for very good reason.
The Morrsarr guard fill the role of shock cavalry. They are built for one thing and one thing alone; cataclysmic charges. They get extra rend and extra damage on the charge, and once per game, can unleash the might of their electric eels upon their hapless foes. These are a really important unit in the army, because while Deepkin have a lot of tricks, they have very few hammer units that can smash through a big unit of Liberators, or an elite monster with relative ease. You can give them more attacks with certain command abilities, to get the most out of them on that ever-so-vital High Tide, and there are plenty of re-rolls to be had, if you have those auras up!
The last Akhelian unit, and in my eyes, the single most powerful unit in the book, is the Ishlaen Guard. This is for two very, very good reasons. The first being the Biovoltaic Barrier; this allows the unit to ignore the rend characteristic of attacks when making save rolls. Now, this isn't to be confused with Nighthaunt, who ignore positive and negative modifiers. You can boost these guys up to a 2+ save with very little effort, either with cover (natural or from the Leviadon), Mystic Shield or by the save bonus when you charge. The second reason is Forgotten Nightmares, the allegiance ability that forces your opponent to shoot the closest unit. By doing so, you're compelling shooting armies (Kharadron Overlords, Free Peoples, Wanderers, the list goes on...) to pump high-value, high-rend shots into a unit that doesn't care. A Barak Zilfin "Clown Car" can be blunted by a very small number of Ishlaen Guard. And while they don't stop mortal wounds, they're still four wounds each, so its going to take some work to put them down for good.
And their power is not limited to shooting. The unit has a massive footprint, and you can very easily close off an entire lane on the board by either using them as a defensive screen against high-rend combat troops, or to go on the offensive themselves and pin units in place with no real danger of taking significant damage. This unit is not powerful because of how much damage it causes, but because of the persistent impact it has on your opponent and how they are forced to play the game. I'm yet to draft a Deepkin list that doesn't have a unit of six Ishlaen Guard in it.
BIG WAVE
It wouldn't be a review without touching on the two Aspects! The model is phenomenal, and both aspects have rules to match! While the Aspect of the Storm is going to cause absolute mayhem in combat, I think the Apsect of the Sea is a standout. He's a powerful wizard, he has a great shooting attack, can heal himself with relative impunity, and emits a +3 Bravery aura! Reading his spell, Tsunami of Terror had me really concerned at first, but seeing his price tag, its appropriately powerful. Again, I've heard people getting excited by the fact that he's not a Monster, and can therefore go on a Balewind, but I honestly don't think Balewinds have a place in Idoneth Deepkin. I don't think the Aspect of the Sea NEEDS a Balewind. He can already re-roll to cast, he doesn't need the protection from shooting, it's easy enough to get him to a 2+ save, and if he somehow does find himself in a spot of bother, there's a nifty little Artefact called the Cloud of Midnight, that will give him a second chance to get away. Sure, the Balewind increases the range, but with the speed of the army and of the Aspect, does he really need it? In an army this elite and tight for points, I can think of far better uses for 100 points.
Besides, I'd put money on significant changes happening to the Balewind Vortex in GHB18...
ENCLAVES AND BATTALIONS
Something that came as a pleasant surprise to me, when making notes and reading through the book is that list-building is quite intuitive. You like Namarti? There are units, battalions and enclaves that focus on Namarti. Akhelians are spoilt for choice with their battalion, characters, so on and so forth. Whether you like magic, janky movement tricks, messing with the tide or just caving heads in, there's an Enclave for you. And no one Enclave stands out as the "best" one. There is no Barak Zilfin, Hagg Nar of Khailebron here. Each has a purpose, and all seem very well balanced among their peers.
There's the obligatory super battalion that will never see the table in anything but the most titanic of games, as well as an Idoneth/Sylvaneth Battalion that I think lacks the flexibility or direction to make it better value than just allying in your favourite Sylvaneth unit into the army.
But the Royal Council is great, as it contains three characters that will quite likely already be in your list, and gives a cheeky speed boost to nearby units. The Namarti Corps builds on the concept of huge blocks of infantry being replenished as they navigate the battle. And the Akhelian Corps encompasses all of the martial units in a neat little package that gives re-rolls when you need them most on those crucial roles, making already impressive units very reliable!
They're all pretty cheap too, with the highest costed Battalion coming in at only 140. Considering how much control Idoneth have over the pace of the game, and how good their artefacts are, decreasing your drops is made very easy!
OVERALL IMPRESSION
This is a really interesting book, and is somewhat reminiscent of older editions of the Eldar for 40k. Every unit has a task that they are fantastic at, and it's all about using those units in conjuction to get the most out of them. Leave a unit unsupported, and it will be overwhelmed. There's not really an "all comers" spam unit that just solves every problem, but I can see big 30-strong Thrall units and big units of Ishlaen Guard being a very common sight, and for good reason. Forgotten Nightmares functions as a hard counter to several of the shooting armies out there, but isn't necessarily going to save the army from missile fire. Sure, the opponent might not have a choice of what it shoots, but whatever it does shoot is going to have to deal with some serious heat! Not to mention, there are several shooting builds that are incredibly mobile, and will simply attack from an angle that lets them shoot their intended victims anyway.
I think the Tides of Death is a very powerful mechanic, but requires an immense amount of board and pace control from the Idoneth player, who must be able to manipulate, speed up and slow down the pace of the game to suit them. Thinking two turns ahead and making sure all the pieces are in the right places will be key, and when a player masters it, they will be very hard to beat!
On the other side of the coin, the challenge for players facing Idoneth Deepkin is to not let themselves play reactively. The minute you settle into a reactive mindset, waiting for your opponent to make moves and try and counter them, is the minute the Deepkin control the game. They are faster than almost any other army in the game (almost...), and they can dance circles around most armies. I believe you need to really make your own moves and play your own game. Put the Idoneth on the back foot, catch out units where you see an opportunity, and most importantly (and I say this for every player, no matter what army you use or face), the best way to force mistakes and errors from your opponent, is to play the scenario above everything else. If you're ahead on the scoreboard, suddenly Deepkin are reacting to you, trying to reverse the tide of battle before they end up being washed out (I'm sorry... I couldn't leave a good dad joke unsaid). If Deepkin are faster than you, let them be faster. You march at that objective. They can be as fast as they want, but if your flag is on the hill, it means nothing.
Easier said than done, though, right?
Deepkin are not a slaughter army like Daughters of Khaine or Blades of Khorne. I've heard a lot of people upset that they just don't have the killing power to put opponents down. But I genuinely don't think that's even close to what the army is designed to do.
It controls the board and it stays alive. And any Age of Sigmar player will tell you; that wins games.
All in all, I think Idoneth Deepkin are a super-cool, super-elite army that has a lot of cogs to make up one single, cohesive machine. They're going to give people some serious headaches, and I think you'll see them pop up on the competitive scene pretty quickly. They're not unbeatable, and they're not bulletproof. There's still that air of fragility to the army, despite it's many, many defensive tricks. There's a great deal of player skill involved to really squeeze the true potential out of the army and I can't wait to see players rise to the challenge.
I haven't really touched on Allies (of which there are plenty of candidates!) or Idoneth being allies for other Order armies, but that's a conversation for another day, and is an avenue rich for exploring by savvy players.
What do you think? Are you diving in headfirst? Or are you worried that Deepkin may come crashing down and put a lot of opponents... out of their depth?
That was the last one, I promise... ;)
Let me know in those comments, and thanks for reading
Gabe
Thursday 26 April 2018
Sunday 15 April 2018
#127: Shooting from the hip...
With the impending flood (eh? EH?) of Deepkin onto the scene, their rules around shooting restrictions has stirred up a lot of conversation around the shooting phase. So, I wanted to throw my opinion into the mix, and see what you think. Before we look too closely at the current scene, however, we need to look back at the very short history of the game to understand how it got to where it is.
Since the dawn of Age of Sigmar, people have had their opinions on the shooting phase and its restrictions. It was a bit of a shock to the system, after coming from WHFB and 40K where you could hide heroes and characters within units, that in Age of Sigmar, you could target individual models and blast their faces off. For a lot of people, this was a big issue within the game, and many have tried to engineer rules to circumvent this.
In the first General's Handbook, there were some powerful shooting lists, sure. Free People and Dispossessed each had powerful gunline builds. Wanderers could pump out a horrendous amount of high-rend shooting, and of course, Kunnin' Rukk deserves a mention. While the game was still very much combat oriented, shooting lists did have some real success. And with those builds being on the scene, this left people with one of three options when it came to keeping their key combo pieces and characters alive.
1: Put enough damage and de-buffs on enemy shooting units to either eliminate or severely cripple the threat. This was naturally the best option, as prevention is better than a cure. If you're taking little to no damage at range, half the problem is already solved. However, many armies (Bloodbound, etc) simply don't have the tools to effectively do this in many situations.
2: Give your opponent no decent targets. This is a bit of a catch-twenty-two, as staying out of range or behind Line-of Sight blocking terrain means your opponent can't kill you, but it also means that your opponent is controlling the board, including when and where you can move.
3: Flood your opponent with targets. The principal behind this one is that if you give your opponent more juicy targets than they can possibly kill, they will focus on the wrong thing and leave important stuff completely unscathed. The more decisions you force your opponent to make, the more times they will get those decisions wrong. Now, this is probably the riskiest of the three, as it requires a certain degree of reckless bravado. There's a very good chance that your opponent WILL make the right decision and punish the two units that pose real threats. But for some armies, there is no other choice...
Everyone slowly learnt which of these three (or a variation or combination of them) was the best way forward. Kunnin' Rukk was incredibly popular, purely on the sheer volume of firepower it could put out, but it certainly had some bad matchups. Shooting armies were far from unbeatable, and if someone had a good list and some sound strategies, there was usually a path to victory to be found.
Then came 2017. This was a pretty big year for the game, and a terrifying one for the shooting phase, because of two Warscrolls.
The first, and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, was Skyfires. They were fast, they were lethal, they could hold their own in combat, they could be replenished with Fold Reality, their shooting was off the chain and they were CHEAP! "160pts per three" cheap... Even if you took Disciples of Tzeentch out of the equation, Skyfires changed the game from that point forward. All of a sudden, there was nowhere to sit out of range, there were not many places they couldn't seek out a hiding model, and if you flooded them with targets, they would make you pay a tremendous toll.
Most players (Tzeentch players included) accepted that they were criminally undercosted. You'd get the occasional person who would argue that they "weren't that bad", but when tournament lists started showing up at events with 24-27 Skyfires in the list, and blitzing their way to the podium, it was hard to give that argument any credit.
The second Warscroll that really highlighted the dangers of an over-the-top shooting phase was the Grundstok Thunderers of the Kharadron Overlords. I think this was a real shame, as the Thunderers were my favourite unit in the whole book. In an army of wealth-hungry mercenaries, these chaps were the best of the best, packing the most firepower and intricate weapons. The idea of gun-for-hire special forces was hugely appealing, but the whole concept was doomed by two things...
The Grundstok Mortar and Aether-Khemists.
What was meant to be a highly mobile dwarf army reverted to the most compact, basic combo; fit as many Grundstok Mortars into a Karak-Urbaz list and nuke your opponent off the board from 36" away.
Sounds like fun, right?
Action to prevent this was far swifter and more brutal than on Skyfires in GHB17. Where Skyfires got a slap on the wrist with a 40 point increase (still well worth it, in my opinion), Kharadron Overlords were absolutely punished. The Khemists went up in points by 40 points (appropriately so), their bonus didn't stack anymore, and the Thunderer Scroll was re-written, making the unit a husk of its former self. I know a lot of KO players were pretty upset by this, and I can understand, after they spent the last two months scraping together enough weapons to make a full unit (or three) of their weapon of choice. But in saying that, something had to be done.
The only other avenue I could see working for a toning back of the scroll would be to leave it as is, and make units five models. No more, no less. That way, you could still have those specialised units, without the ridiculousness. But you'd still have the issue of a gunline; it just means it's spread across more units. It would hugely scale down the efficiency of Khemists, as a Mortar unit would only ever be able to kick out ten shots a turn, but the games developers made a decision and I can understand why. As it is, you can make a legal, optimal unit straight out of the box without having to trade bits.
Since then, aside from armies like Nurgle, who have some great anti-shooting utility built into them, the biggest rule to affect shooting comes with the Idoneth Deepkin allegiance ability, which forces enemy units to shoot the nearest Idoneth unit, for better or worse. This is an incredibly strong ability, as it allows Idoneth to buff a unit up to absorb incoming fire, and protect literally every other unit in their army from harm in the shooting phase.
Now, it's too early to really judge the Deepkin book from a matched play perspective until we see the whole book, but it has certainly done one thing; respark the debate around shooting.
There are plenty of people, either on Facebook, on podcasts or on YouTube, who have called for the rules of shooting in 40k to be transferred over to Age of Sigmar, particularly, not being able to target heroes under 10 wounds unless they're the closest unit. And I can understand the appeal in this. Keeping your heroes alive for longer would be fantastic, and preventing your opponent from unleashing a veritable arsenal upon your humble Skink Priest would be a godsend.
And this is what I want to hit on. I think (and I stand firmly by this statement) that is probably the single worst rule to introduce to our beloved game.
While it might sound great on paper, and from the perspective of many armies, it's doesn't have much of an impact, it pushes certain armies into levels of obscene power that would inevitably destroy any sense of balance in the game.
All of a sudden, a council of Tzeentch wizards hiding behind screen upon screen of splitting Horrors have no risk of danger to themselves, in most cases, for the entire game. It's a brutal combat army that can chew through horrors by turn five and kill those wizards, let alone survive the arcane barrage all game. A Stormcast army's heroes handing out save bonuses can't be touched until you cut through sixty or more wounds of 2+ saves, re-rolling 1's. And then armies like Kharadron Overlords are essentially made borderline redundant.
I'm not saying I have the answer to find perfect balance, or that I know better. But one thing is for sure; introducing 40K shooting rules is not the answer.
I think Idoneth might be enough on their own to shift the power away from shooting armies, as I can see them being at events en masse, and being horrific matchups for certain armies (Barak Zilfin and Aetherstrike Force spring to mind). I don't think the sky is falling with the Deepkin allegiance ability, and I don't think it's made shooting units worthless, by any stretch! I think it will make players measure and calculate their game plan a bit more, which can only improve their play style. Adversity nurtures strategic and tactical growth.
I am interested to see where they take the shooting phase in the near future. Will it be addressed or changed in the GHB18? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
Since the dawn of Age of Sigmar, people have had their opinions on the shooting phase and its restrictions. It was a bit of a shock to the system, after coming from WHFB and 40K where you could hide heroes and characters within units, that in Age of Sigmar, you could target individual models and blast their faces off. For a lot of people, this was a big issue within the game, and many have tried to engineer rules to circumvent this.
In the first General's Handbook, there were some powerful shooting lists, sure. Free People and Dispossessed each had powerful gunline builds. Wanderers could pump out a horrendous amount of high-rend shooting, and of course, Kunnin' Rukk deserves a mention. While the game was still very much combat oriented, shooting lists did have some real success. And with those builds being on the scene, this left people with one of three options when it came to keeping their key combo pieces and characters alive.
1: Put enough damage and de-buffs on enemy shooting units to either eliminate or severely cripple the threat. This was naturally the best option, as prevention is better than a cure. If you're taking little to no damage at range, half the problem is already solved. However, many armies (Bloodbound, etc) simply don't have the tools to effectively do this in many situations.
2: Give your opponent no decent targets. This is a bit of a catch-twenty-two, as staying out of range or behind Line-of Sight blocking terrain means your opponent can't kill you, but it also means that your opponent is controlling the board, including when and where you can move.
3: Flood your opponent with targets. The principal behind this one is that if you give your opponent more juicy targets than they can possibly kill, they will focus on the wrong thing and leave important stuff completely unscathed. The more decisions you force your opponent to make, the more times they will get those decisions wrong. Now, this is probably the riskiest of the three, as it requires a certain degree of reckless bravado. There's a very good chance that your opponent WILL make the right decision and punish the two units that pose real threats. But for some armies, there is no other choice...
Everyone slowly learnt which of these three (or a variation or combination of them) was the best way forward. Kunnin' Rukk was incredibly popular, purely on the sheer volume of firepower it could put out, but it certainly had some bad matchups. Shooting armies were far from unbeatable, and if someone had a good list and some sound strategies, there was usually a path to victory to be found.
Then came 2017. This was a pretty big year for the game, and a terrifying one for the shooting phase, because of two Warscrolls.
The first, and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, was Skyfires. They were fast, they were lethal, they could hold their own in combat, they could be replenished with Fold Reality, their shooting was off the chain and they were CHEAP! "160pts per three" cheap... Even if you took Disciples of Tzeentch out of the equation, Skyfires changed the game from that point forward. All of a sudden, there was nowhere to sit out of range, there were not many places they couldn't seek out a hiding model, and if you flooded them with targets, they would make you pay a tremendous toll.
Most players (Tzeentch players included) accepted that they were criminally undercosted. You'd get the occasional person who would argue that they "weren't that bad", but when tournament lists started showing up at events with 24-27 Skyfires in the list, and blitzing their way to the podium, it was hard to give that argument any credit.
The second Warscroll that really highlighted the dangers of an over-the-top shooting phase was the Grundstok Thunderers of the Kharadron Overlords. I think this was a real shame, as the Thunderers were my favourite unit in the whole book. In an army of wealth-hungry mercenaries, these chaps were the best of the best, packing the most firepower and intricate weapons. The idea of gun-for-hire special forces was hugely appealing, but the whole concept was doomed by two things...
The Grundstok Mortar and Aether-Khemists.
What was meant to be a highly mobile dwarf army reverted to the most compact, basic combo; fit as many Grundstok Mortars into a Karak-Urbaz list and nuke your opponent off the board from 36" away.
Sounds like fun, right?
Action to prevent this was far swifter and more brutal than on Skyfires in GHB17. Where Skyfires got a slap on the wrist with a 40 point increase (still well worth it, in my opinion), Kharadron Overlords were absolutely punished. The Khemists went up in points by 40 points (appropriately so), their bonus didn't stack anymore, and the Thunderer Scroll was re-written, making the unit a husk of its former self. I know a lot of KO players were pretty upset by this, and I can understand, after they spent the last two months scraping together enough weapons to make a full unit (or three) of their weapon of choice. But in saying that, something had to be done.
The only other avenue I could see working for a toning back of the scroll would be to leave it as is, and make units five models. No more, no less. That way, you could still have those specialised units, without the ridiculousness. But you'd still have the issue of a gunline; it just means it's spread across more units. It would hugely scale down the efficiency of Khemists, as a Mortar unit would only ever be able to kick out ten shots a turn, but the games developers made a decision and I can understand why. As it is, you can make a legal, optimal unit straight out of the box without having to trade bits.
Since then, aside from armies like Nurgle, who have some great anti-shooting utility built into them, the biggest rule to affect shooting comes with the Idoneth Deepkin allegiance ability, which forces enemy units to shoot the nearest Idoneth unit, for better or worse. This is an incredibly strong ability, as it allows Idoneth to buff a unit up to absorb incoming fire, and protect literally every other unit in their army from harm in the shooting phase.
Now, it's too early to really judge the Deepkin book from a matched play perspective until we see the whole book, but it has certainly done one thing; respark the debate around shooting.
There are plenty of people, either on Facebook, on podcasts or on YouTube, who have called for the rules of shooting in 40k to be transferred over to Age of Sigmar, particularly, not being able to target heroes under 10 wounds unless they're the closest unit. And I can understand the appeal in this. Keeping your heroes alive for longer would be fantastic, and preventing your opponent from unleashing a veritable arsenal upon your humble Skink Priest would be a godsend.
And this is what I want to hit on. I think (and I stand firmly by this statement) that is probably the single worst rule to introduce to our beloved game.
While it might sound great on paper, and from the perspective of many armies, it's doesn't have much of an impact, it pushes certain armies into levels of obscene power that would inevitably destroy any sense of balance in the game.
All of a sudden, a council of Tzeentch wizards hiding behind screen upon screen of splitting Horrors have no risk of danger to themselves, in most cases, for the entire game. It's a brutal combat army that can chew through horrors by turn five and kill those wizards, let alone survive the arcane barrage all game. A Stormcast army's heroes handing out save bonuses can't be touched until you cut through sixty or more wounds of 2+ saves, re-rolling 1's. And then armies like Kharadron Overlords are essentially made borderline redundant.
I'm not saying I have the answer to find perfect balance, or that I know better. But one thing is for sure; introducing 40K shooting rules is not the answer.
I think Idoneth might be enough on their own to shift the power away from shooting armies, as I can see them being at events en masse, and being horrific matchups for certain armies (Barak Zilfin and Aetherstrike Force spring to mind). I don't think the sky is falling with the Deepkin allegiance ability, and I don't think it's made shooting units worthless, by any stretch! I think it will make players measure and calculate their game plan a bit more, which can only improve their play style. Adversity nurtures strategic and tactical growth.
I am interested to see where they take the shooting phase in the near future. Will it be addressed or changed in the GHB18? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
Sunday 8 April 2018
#126: The Road to Bris Vegas Open...
With BrisCon fast approaching, I thought I'd do a quick article on the BrisVegas Open, the Age of Sigmar event at BrisCon.
Now, typically, I'm not able to attend two-day tournaments, as work and family usually fill my schedule long before a tournament can. But this year, I've set two weekends aside wholly and solely for rolling dice and getting rinsed. While I don't consider myself to be amongst the elite upper echelon of Australian gamers (my choice in army doesn't help...), I do want to play and fight to the best of my ability.
RCGT has become quite the iconic event, and draws a large contingent of interstate players. And so I definitely wanted to attend that one. This left me with one more two-dayer to lock in, and the BrisVegas Open is it! My goal this year was to punch as high as I could in the Aussie Matched Play rankings, and to do that with any hope of success, it's kind of mandatory to do well in at least one two-day event, as they are worth significantly more ranking points than one-day events. With RCGT still a long way off, this left me with the BrisVegas Open to focus on, so this article is going to cover the player pack, my army list for the event as well as what I want to achieve at the tournament.
So let's start with the players pack, the framework upon which every tournament is built. If you want to read along, or check it out for yourself, the pack can be found here...
http://www.briscon.com.au/tournaments.html
So, it's a 2000pt 5-game event, using scenarios from the GHB17. And while I won't bore you with all of the details that are readily available on the document, I do want to pick out a few things that set this players pack apart.
The first thing of note is that each player is required to bring six objective markers and three pieces of terrain. Now, when I first saw that six markers were required, I was surprised. Typically, if both players have three, that's enough for any and every scenario being played. But the more I thought about it, it makes sense to bring a full set, because I guarantee you there will be at least one person (I've been guilty of being this person in years gone by) who will straight up forget to even bring markers. So, I can fully understand that decision. Objective markers are easy enough to either make or find appropriate tokens for, so I don't think many players will have trouble with this.
The terrain element is something that has been introduced relatively recently in the Australian scene; CanCon implemented it at the beginning of the year, and BrisVegas Open is following suit. And the reasoning behind this is, as the scene grows and tournaments get larger, the demand for terrain on tables also grows. In the past, that demand has fallen to the TO, who will have to beg, borrow and buy enough terrain to sustain the event. This is a huge outlay and a pretty big weight on their shoulders. By asking players to provide three pieces each (so, six per table), it cuts down the workload immensely for the organisers, allowing them to actually organise the event. I'm not opposed to this at all. I think anything we, as players, can do to make it easier for TO's to run events is beneficial for all involved. It takes pressure off TO's, and means that we'll see more tournaments and events at a scale that has previously been unattainable. And terrain is very open ended. You can put as much or as little effort as you wish to create terrain for events. I know gentlemen who are planning to take the Arcane Ruins box ($41AUD) and split it in three to make small scatter pieces, while other gamers are investing in the Warscryer Citadel as just one of their pieces! Some gamers are also using the terrain requirement as a reason to lavish attention on their army display, creating scenery that matches and compliments their force, either as additional elements or as part of a display board. I don't think the terrain is too much of a barrier to entry, and I think it will push hobbyists to new levels of creativity.
There's the standard clarification rules, such as measuring base-to-base, and measuring from the centre of objectives, allowing a little size variation from player to player without impacting gameplay.
Then we have five secondary objectives. Each player picks one at the start of each game, and can only use each objective once in the tournament. And this is where I think players will be able to really scrape advantages and gain lots of momentum. Of the 165 Tournament Points available over the weekend, secondaries are worth 20. This means that every player is going to need to play hard for them. I think one of the toughest parts of the event (other than trying to beat your opponent, of course) is going to be matching those secondaries with your five opponents. If you can play your cards right, you can launch yourself up the leaderboard, but I can see myself making a mistake early on and finding the objectives in my last two games to be very difficult! I think that all five are pretty achievable, and I think every player should familiarise themselves with how to achieve each one, and how to try and prevent your opponent from claiming them on you.
For me, I feel like No Prisoners is my strongest, as I can usually chew through units pretty easily throughout the game (admittedly, while taking horrific losses myself), where I think Bloodlust is going to be tricky. As always, it depends on the opponent and scenario, but I feel therein lies the skill and strategic decisions.
The last little thing I wanted to touch on is the painting matrix. BrisVegas Open requires "3-colour minimum" when it comes to painting, as a base requirement for entry. Depending on what side of the fence you're on regarding this, it's either a good or a bad thing. My position on this has always been pretty public. I think that armies should be painted. Painting is a huge part of the hobby for me, and I personally love playing against other painted armies with my own fully painted army. That's just a side of the hobby that catches my interest and really impresses me! I love the idea of going to an event knowing that every army was going to be painted.
On the other side of the coin, one of my mates has never been an avid painter, and saw it as a huge barrier to entry. He's since embarked on a journey to learn to paint, and his army has come up really well, but I can fully understand people seeing it as a huge barrier.
What do you think about painting requirements? Do you love them, hate them, something in between?
Painting also has a lot of weight in Tournament Points, being worth 25 points if you can clean up on the painting matrix. So, there's a significant benefit to having a fully painted army.
All in all, I think the Player Pack is pretty well rounded. I think the requirements on the player is higher than we've seen in the past, but I also feel like its not unreasonable for us to shoulder some of the weight in running a tournament. The more we help, the more events there will be. Everyone wins.
What are standouts of the Players Pack for you?
I'll be taking my Clan Pestilens to BrisVegas Open as their first big outing after being completed. Despite having two other competitive armies in the works, these guys deserve an outing. So here's what I'm taking.
Allegiance: Skaven Pestilens
Verminlord Corruptor (Vexler's Shroud, Verminous Valour)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicus)
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
Arch-Warlock (Allies)
40 Plague Monks (Battleline)
40 Plague Monks (Battleline)
20 Plague Monks (Battleline)
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
5 Gutter Runners (Allies)
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion)
It's pretty similar to what I've been using, but I've put some Runners in to give myself that little movement trick. I'm hoping that in a pool of fifty players, I can get some favourable matchups, and I'm hoping to catch a few people off guard with the rats, as they aren't really a common army that people have had experience fighting.
Then again, maybe there's a reason no one plays Pestilens...
To wrap up this little pre-event run down, I want to talk about what I'm hoping to achieve at the event. My first goal is to finish in the top half of the pool. While that sounds very straight forward, theres a very good reason for this! Currently in the Rankings, Thomas Holdsworth holds the Pestilens Icon, proclaiming him to be the highest ranked Pestilens player in all the land. He has recorded 43-44 points with them. If I finish in the top half, it means that I'll gain 50+ points on the Rankings, which will propel me into that Icon, where I can claim what shred of glory there is in Pestilens. Now, that said, Thomas has also not decided what army he is taking, so he could just as well bring Pestilens and extend his lead. We'll see... But I really, reeaally want that Icon!
I'd also love to get a Best Opponent vote. It's always something that I strive for, as I believe everyone should. And it's always an honour to get a vote.
I don't think I'm going to be in the mix at the top tables, or in that top level of painting for Best Painted, but I'm fully planning to do my very best.
What are your goals going into tournaments. If you're attending BrisVegas Open, what are your hopes for the event.
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
Now, typically, I'm not able to attend two-day tournaments, as work and family usually fill my schedule long before a tournament can. But this year, I've set two weekends aside wholly and solely for rolling dice and getting rinsed. While I don't consider myself to be amongst the elite upper echelon of Australian gamers (my choice in army doesn't help...), I do want to play and fight to the best of my ability.
RCGT has become quite the iconic event, and draws a large contingent of interstate players. And so I definitely wanted to attend that one. This left me with one more two-dayer to lock in, and the BrisVegas Open is it! My goal this year was to punch as high as I could in the Aussie Matched Play rankings, and to do that with any hope of success, it's kind of mandatory to do well in at least one two-day event, as they are worth significantly more ranking points than one-day events. With RCGT still a long way off, this left me with the BrisVegas Open to focus on, so this article is going to cover the player pack, my army list for the event as well as what I want to achieve at the tournament.
So let's start with the players pack, the framework upon which every tournament is built. If you want to read along, or check it out for yourself, the pack can be found here...
http://www.briscon.com.au/tournaments.html
So, it's a 2000pt 5-game event, using scenarios from the GHB17. And while I won't bore you with all of the details that are readily available on the document, I do want to pick out a few things that set this players pack apart.
The first thing of note is that each player is required to bring six objective markers and three pieces of terrain. Now, when I first saw that six markers were required, I was surprised. Typically, if both players have three, that's enough for any and every scenario being played. But the more I thought about it, it makes sense to bring a full set, because I guarantee you there will be at least one person (I've been guilty of being this person in years gone by) who will straight up forget to even bring markers. So, I can fully understand that decision. Objective markers are easy enough to either make or find appropriate tokens for, so I don't think many players will have trouble with this.
The terrain element is something that has been introduced relatively recently in the Australian scene; CanCon implemented it at the beginning of the year, and BrisVegas Open is following suit. And the reasoning behind this is, as the scene grows and tournaments get larger, the demand for terrain on tables also grows. In the past, that demand has fallen to the TO, who will have to beg, borrow and buy enough terrain to sustain the event. This is a huge outlay and a pretty big weight on their shoulders. By asking players to provide three pieces each (so, six per table), it cuts down the workload immensely for the organisers, allowing them to actually organise the event. I'm not opposed to this at all. I think anything we, as players, can do to make it easier for TO's to run events is beneficial for all involved. It takes pressure off TO's, and means that we'll see more tournaments and events at a scale that has previously been unattainable. And terrain is very open ended. You can put as much or as little effort as you wish to create terrain for events. I know gentlemen who are planning to take the Arcane Ruins box ($41AUD) and split it in three to make small scatter pieces, while other gamers are investing in the Warscryer Citadel as just one of their pieces! Some gamers are also using the terrain requirement as a reason to lavish attention on their army display, creating scenery that matches and compliments their force, either as additional elements or as part of a display board. I don't think the terrain is too much of a barrier to entry, and I think it will push hobbyists to new levels of creativity.
There's the standard clarification rules, such as measuring base-to-base, and measuring from the centre of objectives, allowing a little size variation from player to player without impacting gameplay.
Then we have five secondary objectives. Each player picks one at the start of each game, and can only use each objective once in the tournament. And this is where I think players will be able to really scrape advantages and gain lots of momentum. Of the 165 Tournament Points available over the weekend, secondaries are worth 20. This means that every player is going to need to play hard for them. I think one of the toughest parts of the event (other than trying to beat your opponent, of course) is going to be matching those secondaries with your five opponents. If you can play your cards right, you can launch yourself up the leaderboard, but I can see myself making a mistake early on and finding the objectives in my last two games to be very difficult! I think that all five are pretty achievable, and I think every player should familiarise themselves with how to achieve each one, and how to try and prevent your opponent from claiming them on you.
For me, I feel like No Prisoners is my strongest, as I can usually chew through units pretty easily throughout the game (admittedly, while taking horrific losses myself), where I think Bloodlust is going to be tricky. As always, it depends on the opponent and scenario, but I feel therein lies the skill and strategic decisions.
The last little thing I wanted to touch on is the painting matrix. BrisVegas Open requires "3-colour minimum" when it comes to painting, as a base requirement for entry. Depending on what side of the fence you're on regarding this, it's either a good or a bad thing. My position on this has always been pretty public. I think that armies should be painted. Painting is a huge part of the hobby for me, and I personally love playing against other painted armies with my own fully painted army. That's just a side of the hobby that catches my interest and really impresses me! I love the idea of going to an event knowing that every army was going to be painted.
On the other side of the coin, one of my mates has never been an avid painter, and saw it as a huge barrier to entry. He's since embarked on a journey to learn to paint, and his army has come up really well, but I can fully understand people seeing it as a huge barrier.
What do you think about painting requirements? Do you love them, hate them, something in between?
Painting also has a lot of weight in Tournament Points, being worth 25 points if you can clean up on the painting matrix. So, there's a significant benefit to having a fully painted army.
All in all, I think the Player Pack is pretty well rounded. I think the requirements on the player is higher than we've seen in the past, but I also feel like its not unreasonable for us to shoulder some of the weight in running a tournament. The more we help, the more events there will be. Everyone wins.
What are standouts of the Players Pack for you?
I'll be taking my Clan Pestilens to BrisVegas Open as their first big outing after being completed. Despite having two other competitive armies in the works, these guys deserve an outing. So here's what I'm taking.
Allegiance: Skaven Pestilens
Verminlord Corruptor (Vexler's Shroud, Verminous Valour)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicus)
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
Arch-Warlock (Allies)
40 Plague Monks (Battleline)
40 Plague Monks (Battleline)
20 Plague Monks (Battleline)
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
5 Gutter Runners (Allies)
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion)
It's pretty similar to what I've been using, but I've put some Runners in to give myself that little movement trick. I'm hoping that in a pool of fifty players, I can get some favourable matchups, and I'm hoping to catch a few people off guard with the rats, as they aren't really a common army that people have had experience fighting.
Then again, maybe there's a reason no one plays Pestilens...
To wrap up this little pre-event run down, I want to talk about what I'm hoping to achieve at the event. My first goal is to finish in the top half of the pool. While that sounds very straight forward, theres a very good reason for this! Currently in the Rankings, Thomas Holdsworth holds the Pestilens Icon, proclaiming him to be the highest ranked Pestilens player in all the land. He has recorded 43-44 points with them. If I finish in the top half, it means that I'll gain 50+ points on the Rankings, which will propel me into that Icon, where I can claim what shred of glory there is in Pestilens. Now, that said, Thomas has also not decided what army he is taking, so he could just as well bring Pestilens and extend his lead. We'll see... But I really, reeaally want that Icon!
I'd also love to get a Best Opponent vote. It's always something that I strive for, as I believe everyone should. And it's always an honour to get a vote.
I don't think I'm going to be in the mix at the top tables, or in that top level of painting for Best Painted, but I'm fully planning to do my very best.
What are your goals going into tournaments. If you're attending BrisVegas Open, what are your hopes for the event.
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
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